THE Royal Surrey County Hospital has come under fire for selling more than £4m worth of NHS medicines to foreign buyers.

Government health officials had previously branded the practice of exporting drugs unacceptable, claiming it put patient care at risk.

The Health Service Journal this week exposed the Royal Surrey as the trust that exploited the weak pound to supply medicine abroad for a profit.

Hospital deputy chief executive Sue Lewis said about £4.6m of income had been generated through selling widely available drugs to a wholesaler, making £300,000 in profit.

Ms Lewis said the trust never sold any medicine that was in short supply or that had a set NHS price.

“We have a licence to manufacture and supply drugs here and have done for as long as I can remember,” she said.

“Recently we’ve also started to sell on drugs between wholesalers so we’ve been the intermediary.”

The health journal reported that the Royal Surrey continued this practice up until January this year despite Department of Health (DoH) warnings about exporting drugs.

Ms Lewis said the DoH’s concerns related to drugs that were in short supply, and added that had the profit margins been higher the Royal Surrey may have continued to sell to wholesalers.

“Certainly the board would’ve considered carrying on doing it,” she said.

"Outrageous"

The chief executive also criticised insinuations in the report that revenue generated from the sale helped fund the trust’s successful bid for foundations status.

“We absolutely refute that and we will be writing to the journal about it,” she said.

“It was £300,000 worth of income this year (2009/10) and our total income will be about £4.6m. They were wrong to suggest that.”

Although hospital regulator Monitor has taken no issue with the sales, independent campaign group Health Emergency branded the practice as scandalous.

Geoff Martin, chairman of the organisation, said: “Patients will be disgusted to learn that an NHS foundation trust has been hawking NHS drugs on the international market in an outrageous attempt to make a fast buck.

“We do not believe this is an issue restricted to the Royal Surrey – we have reason to believe that other foundation trusts have been dealing NHS drugs for speculative profits and there should now be a national investigation.”

A DoH spokesman said: “The department is aware of a report that hospitals have considered trading in medicines for short term financial gain.

“Such activities are wrong and threaten the medicines supply chain and patient care.

“The chief pharmaceutical officer wrote to all chief hospital pharmacists in England on July 14, 2009 to make clear that such behaviour is wholly unacceptable and contrary to acceptable professional behaviour.

“This message was reinforced in guidance published last November by the government together with supply chain organisations on the legal and ethical duties that apply to manufacturers, wholesalers, pharmacies and hospitals.”